The link has to survive both brackets: analogies

What is an analogy question?

Your child is given a pair of words with some relationship between them, and a second pair with one word missing. They must complete the second pair so the relationship is the same.

Kitten is to cat as puppy is to… The relationship is the adult of, and the answer is dog.

Put like that it sounds easy, and at Year 4 it often is. What makes it hard later is that the distractors are all genuinely connected to the words in the question — and connection is not the relationship.

The Link Ladder

Step two is where nearly all the time should go. Finding the link is the work; the rest is reading carefully.

The link has to survive both brackets

This is the part that costs marks, and it is worth dwelling on.

Drizzle is to downpour as breeze is to (gale, sail, kite).

Most children look at that and think: drizzle is a kind of rain. And they are completely right. It is a real link, and it is the wrong one — because when you carry it across, there is nothing in the second bracket that a breeze is a kind of. Not a gale. Not a sail. Not a kite.

Here is where it goes wrong: they force it anyway and pick the nearest thing.

Don't. Go back and find a different link. A downpour is a much stronger version of drizzle. A gale is a much stronger version of a breeze. That link survives both brackets, so that link is the answer.

Can you show me a worked example?

Where do pupils lose marks?

Forcing a failed link. The link does not work on the second bracket, and rather than find another, the child picks the closest option.

Matching on association. Bone and bark are about dogs; neither is the adult of.

Not saying the link. An unspoken link cannot be tested, and under pressure it quietly becomes a feeling.

Try it yourself

Say the link in the first pair out loud as a rule, then carry that exact rule to the second bracket.

1. Drizzle is to downpour as breeze is to (gale, sail, kite).
2. Kitten is to cat as puppy is to (bone, dog, bark).
3. Glance is to stare as sip is to (cup, gulp, thirst).
4. Petal is to flower as branch is to (leaf, tree, wood).

Show Answers

How much practice does this type need at home?

Short and frequent, and it can be done entirely out loud. Give your child a pair — cub and bear — and ask for the link as a sentence. Then give them a new first word and ask for its partner.

The point of doing it aloud is that it forces step two, which is the step children skip on paper. Once saying the link is automatic, the written questions become mostly reading.